Hi Nate,Probably best to put your questions directly to Michael at FS-GS. http://www.fs-gs.com/Regarding flashing your 9800 Pro to an XT, I've recently done the deed. You must first remove the stock cooler and check what core is on your card. If it's an R350, flashing to an XT BIOS will only cause problems. You're better off staying with the current BIOS. Only flash the card to an XT BIOS if it has an R360 core. And don't trust any software to tell you what core you have... you must physically see what core you're working with. If you do have an R360 core, feel free to e-mail me. I can get you hooked up with a good BIOS.Cheers,GregEdit: Ahhh... Nate, I just visited FS-GS's forum and saw your poll there. Good luck.

I'm planning on dropping on the ASUS version... the reviews I've heard of it say the stock cooler is MUCH better, and easily suited to run the card at the flashed speeds without modification to cooling. Apparantly the Saphire and ATI versions have crapola coolers.Yah... I definitely don't want to end up with a paperweight minus $330 from my wallet. I suppose I could always go buy a cheap-#### PCI video card to temporarily run my monitor to re-flash the card if crap goes down, but, I'd rather avoid that.I figure that the 9800 Pro 256 would be a nice jump from my GeForce4 Ti4200 128 anyway, so... even if I couldn't flash to the 9800XT, I'd still have a significant performance boost on my hands *knock on wood.* The BIOS flash would be gravy, and help my card last a couple years I'm sure. I'd waste way too much time with HL2 and FS9 ;)Anyway, I appreciate the tip. Thanks much!~Nate

Yikes!!! $330.00 for a 9800 Pro!! For a few dollars more you could get an X800 Pro. Newegg is currently selling a 9800 Pro 128MB for $209.00. Many of these Sapphire cards are currently being made with R360 cores. Get rid of that lousy cooler and replace it with an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer ($20.00 or less), flash with the HIS 9800 XT 128MB BIOS and you're good to go. A few of the Sapphire Pro cards are even being built on the XT PWA (these are rather rare though).http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-102-268&depa=0I have an ATI 9800 Pro with R360 and Hynix 2.8ns memory that I flashed to the HIS BIOS. Have the VGA Silencer (modded for a 70mm fan), and the card is running 445/398 stable.If you're gonna spend that kind of money on a new video vard do yourself a favor and get one of the new gen cards.Hope this helps,Greg

You know I just flew in the northeast in fair weather with about 3 layers of clouds in the PMDG and it really was silky just about everywhere, once airborn. On the ground in busy JFK i had a low of 13 or so, then hovering around 22 or so. I am locked at 24. Was very smooth on touchdown in Ottowa (sic?). Some situations of weather really hit it hard, and some doesn't, and it's hard to tell which weather kills performance. Very hard to evaluate!Noel

Well... Pricewatch is showing the Sapphire 9800 Pro 256 at $260. I feel slightly less confident with messing with heat sinks, though I'm sure I could do it if I spent the time. 9800XT 256s are running 370 right now. I suppose with only a $50 price diff between the ASUS 9800 Pro and the Sapphire 9800XT, saving for an extra week or two would be easier, and maintain the warranty. Hmm...Since I still have a little while to go before I actually jump on a new video card, I can wait and see what the market is doing. I think ATI and/or nVidia are supposed to come out with new lines of cards here in the near future, which would drop the price of the 9800s more. I'm just trying to stay at a decent cost/performance ratio. I can't really justify dropping $410 on a X800 right now.I just kind of see my 4200 128 as a bottleneck of sorts right now, and especially so when I upgrade my processor and memory.One quick thing... I know the ATI is a pretty dominant card right now, and it also comes with a free copy of HL2 (when it comes out). That said... is there any merit to possibly leaping on the nVidia option? Mebbe the 5900 or so?I appreciate the input. If you want, e-mail me directly, since this is kind of getting off topic from the original thread. Thanks man.~Nate

"...since this is kind of getting off topic from the original thread."Agreed. I'll e-mail you.Greg

Noel:Yes, I also had trouble nailing down specific situations. I think that was part of my problem -- I would chase one situation by changing this slider or that one. Michael got a good laugh at some of the "voodoo" I had learned to use from these forums.What I can tell you is that I learned an amazing amount from our session. I had total misconceptions about how the FS9 graphic engine works. Some of the fs9.cfg modifications recommended here are either useless or worse, cause problems! Michael explained clearly why they were bogus and then went on to help me set my system up properly. THAT is why it takes so much time.Last night I made my first complete flight from KIAH to KSAT in the PMDG B1900/JetPack2/Weather Radar using AS2004. There were thunderstorms with lightning everywhere. Before, I had no autogen (I did the renaming "fix" of the autogen file that had been suggested here.) and was running 2xAA and 4xAF. I am now running 6xAA and 16xAF. Banking turns were slide shows before, but now are complete smooth with no hesitations. Although I have just had a few hours of use with my "new" system, I have yet to find any problems.I was grinning from ear to ear as we were making our final test flight yesterday. I just couldn't believe the improvement. But it got better. We were communicating via voice using Windows Messenger. Once we disconnected, what was already very smooth got even smoother. It is obvious that we were using significant resources for our communications.Anyway, I have spewed my opinions enough around here on this topic. All I can say is if you don't believe it is worth the money, then don't do it. But, folks, please don't slam the guy. There are now too many satisfied customers to say that it is snake oil.Wilson

I've been following this thread with great interest for a while now and just can't understand the comments about going for "smoothness" vs. FPS. Yes, smoothness is a very worthy goal- high FPS with stutters stinks. But genuine smoothness of flight modelling is intimately tied to FPS, there's simply no way around that.Smoothness of visual and smoothness of flight modelling are two different goals- to address one while ignoring the other is not a genuine performance improvement. Even if things look great on screen, stutter free, when you are on final approach with FPS of 15-20 you're missing 5-10 FPS of necessary information to realistically tie control inputs to what you see on the screen.I agree that "chasing" fps is not a productive exercise, but from what I've been reading the strategy of ignoring them in favor of visual "smoothness" is just as much the wrong way to approach tuning one's system...Best,Joel

Hi Joel,"I agree that "chasing" fps is not a productive exercise, but from what I've been reading the strategy of ignoring them in favor of visual "smoothness" is just as much the wrong way to approach tuning one's system...".....I now have to disagree. Following a 5 hour session with Michael my performance has been transformed beyond what I believed would be possible. Previously there was no way I could run with all scenery sliders maxed (with the default autogen xml file), heavy cloud cover coupled with 6x AA and 16x AF Quality/High Quality settings, without it becoming a slide show. Now, the only time I notice some degradation in performance is with certain 3rd Party sceneries and a/c - not all by any means and this presumably reflects the individual design methods used.Towards the end of the consultation there was a testing period designed to find that 'sweet spot' to lock the frame rate counter. In my case this turned out to be 31fps. Now this is odd and appears to fly in the face of all previously accepted logic as my average frame rates were never as high as this pre FS-GS (I had it locked at 20fps). I confess I still sneek a look at the frame rate counter from time to time and it is often well below 31fps, and yet the sim still seems smooth! Why? Well, I guess you will have to find out for yourself. I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB GPU and I was surprised to see an actual improvement in performance at the higher driver settings - not what I had believed to be the case hitherto. It's all about removing bottlenecks to facilitate the data stream as far as it is possible to achieve on a particular system. Providing info in a thread such as this would not be helpful as Michael's advice is carefully tailored to optimize each individual system. The variables are legion ranging, for example, from currently installed software, hardware components, drivers, operating system and Harddrive/s layout. I will say this, however. He made it very clear at the outset that he was not prepared to work with me until I agreed at the initial consultation to remove certain software that had been shown beyond doubt to eat up available resources. Once persuaded, that single act persuaded me that he was on the level, for I noticed an immediate general improvement in responsiveness and performance while working in XP and FS2004. Furthermore, he recommends alternative software to replace that which has been removed, so you won't lose any functionality.I was reasonably happy with the sim pre FS-GS. Now I am delighted, for it performs and looks far better than I could ever have expected without the expense of yet another hardware upgrade. Quite evidently, Michael has demonstrated that the latter course of action is no longer necessary.My system setup is quite complex and is not dedicated exclusively to FS2004. While his efforts are aimed primarily at FS2004 (he is also a keen simmer and has a huge installation) the welcome side effects are seen in general improvement in overall system performance. Mike

Well, the testimony is very strong. It's very tempting to try this service, but I have some trepidation about having to change my current software environment (hey I set it up this way because I like it just the way it is) and not really being sure any of this will help, plus the idea of 4-5 hours of tweaking.I have one serious question for all responders who know:After System Unification is achieved, is it ABSOLUTELY fluid, ALL the time, regardless of the particular situation you're flying in? If the answer is yes, then I would not hestitate to try this service. This is a huge distinction in this entire dialogue that I don't think I have seen addressed. If it's still herky jerky in *certain* situations, then I am fully back to wondering about this service. So, what's your impression: perfect smoothness always, or back to situation-dependent smoothness (as it is in my rig now)?Noel

"Well, the testimony is very strong. It's very tempting to try this service, but I have some trepidation about having to change my current software environment (hey I set it up this way because I like it just the way it is) and not really being sure any of this will help, plus the idea of 4-5 hours of tweaking."Noel, don't worry, you're not alone. I experienced those exact same feelings prior to the preliminary chat with Michael. He will spend about an hour querying you about your current setup before giving you an appointment. If anything stands out as being in any way undesirable or is likely to hinder the 'system unification process' in any significant way he will tell you and will provide full and clear explanations. You are not forced to do anything - the choice is yours. In practice, however, you will soon come to trust his advice and will want to follow his lead. As I explained in my post, I have a very complex installation of diverse software, much of which I have spent ages configuring, so you can appreciate why I felt some genuine concerns that I may be asked to start over. Suffice it to say that, in my case at least, the changes he asked me to make before the main consultation, while significant, did not involve major disruptions to my existing setup. There was a couple of things he suggested I might think about doing the next time I do a rebuild and start afresh, but was not deemed essential or indeed vital to the process this time around.The main consultation lasts between 4-6 hours and requires a fair amount of concentration, but you are 'allowed' several short breaks thankfully. I imagine the time spent will be directly proportional to the amount of work needed on each individual system. Just make sure you have a few sandwiches and drinks ready to hand. Believe me the time passes surprisingly quickly!"After System Unification is achieved, is it ABSOLUTELY fluid, ALL the time, regardless of the particular situation you're flying in?" .......if by 'absolutely fluid' you mean generally free from stuttering then the answer is most definitely yes. However, it is also true, as you would expect, that you will still experience slow downs in extremely dense situations, the quality of third party scenery design and a/c, but those situations will be far fewer than before. Looking at your hardware specs it is clear to me that, apart from the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, yours has more grunt than mine and one would expect pretty good results in that respect. However, the GPU is all important in this equation, possibly moreso than the CPU as my understanding is, if you must think in terms fps, that for every 750Mhz increase in CPU power you can expect around a 20% increase in fps - not much if you're average before the upgrade was 10fps and hardly justifies the expense. On the other hand, if the GPU can be exploited to the full then the story is very different. To see the sim as it's designers would like us to see it AND have good performance is a real treat in store for those who decide to take the plunge. I say go for it, get in touch with Michael and have that preliminary chat before making your decision.Cheers!MikeP4 2.4GHz (400FSB), 1Gig PC2100 DDR Crucial, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Omega 2.5.36b), SB Audigy (5.12.0001.0443), Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" TFT LCD 20ms Monitor (1280x1024x32), Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBo, Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W, WinXP Home (SP1), DirectX 9.0b, AGP Aperture = 128MB

"To see the sim as it's designers would like us to see it AND have good performance is a real treat in store for those who decide to take the plunge. I say go for it, get in touch with Michael and have that preliminary chat before making your decision."As always, Mike, your explanations and recounting of the service are crystal clear. Thanks for that. For the price the service FS-GS offers seems like a real bargain... one that pays off very nice benefits.Greg

Well, I have to give it a whirl when I have 6h to give up, and chalk it up to an opportunity to learn something. I don't think I would do this for just improved perf in FS, as I already have decent perf. But am intrigued by delving into a better understanding of what's up, if that is possible with this process. I, once again, am intrigued, no . . . almost stunned (!) at the prospect of having a to "spend about an hour querying you about your current setup." Clearly I don't have a grip on what this is about. I must respond to this comment of yours Mike: ".......if by 'absolutely fluid' you mean generally free from stuttering then the answer is most definitely yes . . ." NO! I mean what I said. I have absolutely fluid motion in many situations, and generally free from stuttering in almost all situations. Am I already unified? Obviously, there is no way to judge this situation. I will be able to tell if there is a dramatic improvement, because I have situations that get poor. From what you have said, post-system unification is no guarantee of being in a stutter-free state. Less, but not free. And obviousy your mileage will vary.Even so, I will see if I can have a prelim chat set up.Is this information likely to convey skills to me so that I can repeat this process myself? What do you think about this?Noel

Noel,I have been following this thread with interest also, and of course I have read all your posts here. To me it sounds as if you feel the same way I do about trying out this service. I just wanted to say that I am eager to hear what you think of it after going for it, should you decide to do so.--------------------------One thing I am pretty curious about is just what software you are not allowed to have installed and are required to get rid of in order to go through with the system unification.Cheers,Jim

Noel,The only situation I've seen since having the system unification done that causes a noticable slowdown is very thick AS2004 cloudscapes. That slowdown though isn't of the stuttering kind, it's a drop in actual FPS. (there is a big difference between those two, as Michael explains) All of the default themes and the MS real world weather are liquid smooth - we used my favorite theme, which is the building storms one, during the process and it runs beautifully. AI traffic, mesh complexity, and autogen have no noticable effect on smoothness for me. I'm running 100% UT all the time and it's perfectly fluid.